SC, OBC residents of Rashbehari receive caste certificates at special camp

Kolkata: A special camp to issue caste certificates was held at an auditorium in South Kolkata on Thursday.

The Scheduled Caste and OBC residents of the wards that fall under Rashbehari Assembly constituency were present at the camp. State Power minister Sobhandeb Chattopadhyay who is the MLA of the Rashbehari Assembly seat, Chandrima Bhattacharya, minister of state Tribal development, along with S K Thade, principal secretary, Backward Classes Welfare department, were present at the camp.

Chattopadhyay said that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had asked the MLAs and councillors to undertake a special initiative to ensure that the SC, ST and OBC people who stay in the areas under their constituency receive caste certificates.

He said those who had produced caste certificates of their parents have been issued the certificates on the spot, while the certificates of the fresh applicants will be issued within a week after completing verification of the documents.

There was great enthusiasm among the people and certificates have been issued on the spot. A similar camp will be held at Keyatala on Saturday.

It may be mentioned that after coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has taken up special measures to issue the caste certificates. Accordingly, camps had been held throughout the state.

Earlier, during the Left Front regime, getting a caste certificate was a major problem and applicants had to wait for several years to get the certificates and even had to pay bribes for the same.

However, since the Trinamool Congress government came to power, such issues have become things of the past and the prompt issuance of caste certificates has helped the beneficiaries enormously.